10 Centimes Essai en bronze-nickel

The 1938 French essai series was produced by the Monnaie de Paris as trial pieces testing alternative alloys ahead of potential recoinage — bronze-nickel was under evaluation as France struggled to maintain consistent base metal supplies under mounting rearmament pressures. This piece corresponds to GEM 40.2/40.3, indicating at least two die or finish variants were struck, a common feature of French essais where the Paris mint routinely produced small runs across differing surface treatments for official comparison.

War intervened before any full production decision could be finalized. The occupation-era coinage that followed used zinc instead.